Thiruvananthapuram: The general practice in the Congress was that it would not project a leader as chief ministerial candidate during campaign for assembly elections, former KPCC president K Muraleedharan, who was recently taken back to the party, said on Monday.
Addressing a meet-the-press programme here, he said the leader of the Congress legislature Party (CLP) would normally be chosen by the Legislature Party after the elections and it would be left to the party president to take a final decision.
Asked for his reaction to KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala’s statement yesterday that he would contest the poll if the party High Command directed him, Muraleedharan said there was nothing wrong in KPCC chiefs contesting polls.
He said the Congress-led UDF was confident of winning at least 100 seats in the 140-member House as the election would be the evaluation of the LDF government in the state that had ‘failed on all fronts’.
He alleged that the ruling LDF was indulging in character assassination of Opposition leaders to ‘cover up the failures’ of their government.
Asked whether he would contest the poll, he said it was upto the party High Command and the state leadership to take a decision. To another query, Muraleedharan said his sister Padmaja Venugpal, who was a KPCC executive member, was also eligible to contest.
The seat-sharing talks in the UDF were expected to be completed by March 11 and the election committee would be formed the next day, he said.
Muraleedharan said the proposed ‘Janapriya’ television channel promoted by him would be launched in September before the Onam festival.
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